


we’re a little off in this regard

by crookedspoon



Series: [f100] The Dream of a Common Language [2]
Category: Batman: White Knight
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Crossdressing, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Identity Issues, Masturbation, POV Harley Quinn, POV Marian Drews, Past Joker/Harleen Quinzel, Sexual Roleplay, Unhealthy Relationships, Wordcount: 250, Work In Progress, background Jack Napier/Harleen Quinzel, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-07 10:48:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15217532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedspoon/pseuds/crookedspoon
Summary: Snapshots of the relationship between Harleen and Marian. Or: in which Harleen plays the Joker to Marian's Harley to keep her from destroying Gotham, and things get complicated pretty quickly.





	1. #28 "Cross-dressing"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Fills several prompts from femslash100's drabble cycle 13: fic tropes.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley gets ready for her "date" with Marian.

Her face is powdered and smooth, her eyes ringed with kohl, her hair clipped back to hide from view. All that's left is to fill out her lips with a red so garish it's bordering on grotesque. She loves it.

To complete the transformation, she is wearing white underwear with cartoonish red hearts beneath her button-down. She doubts they'll get her this far out of her clothes tonight, but she's always been a detail-oriented gal. She has a whole collection of underwear to match the Joker's. 

Not that Marian is going to be able to appreciate them anytime soon – or at all, if she doesn't behave. Harley doesn't know if she's even seen the Joker's underwear if they've never been intimate. But if she knows him at all, as she claims she does, she'll know they're in-character.

Harley would never have thought she'd be looking forward to this, but she can't deny how powerful she feels in this getup, and how much fun it is to exercise her mean streak on Marian. It helps to alleviate the wish of simply knifing her to death that's also in the back of her mind.

The gloves are last, and in reverse, they're also the first to go, because Harley enjoys slapping and gagging Marian with them. She's also come to enjoy feeling the other woman up – her sizable rack is just begging to be fondled.

Harley feels herself leer before the mirror reflects it. She is ready to destroy Marian again tonight.


	2. #14 "First times"

Marian sort of resents that she let herself be bullied into this. Never mind that she'd been the one doing the bullying first.

By now, it doesn't matter who started what and wherefore, all that matters is that they are locked in this dance. She won't stop until Harleen stops, and Harleen won't stop as long as Marian proves she can behave herself. Which means threatening neither Jack nor Gotham.

By now, there's no need anymore. By now, she wonders why she ever bothered. The Joker has never been the person she wanted him to be, and he never would be. Let him lead his happy, boring new life as a "normal" person, who cares?

As long as he doesn't keep Harleen to himself, she won't have to bother him anymore.

Marian moans as excitement shudders through her. Just thinking about Harleen makes her stomach flip and her pussy clench. She's so wet from the anticipation alone, she can hardly wait for Harleen to touch her.

To think she'd never so much as kissed another woman before Harleen. And now she's practically gnawing off her fingernails waiting to be manhandled by one. (Though does it really count if the woman is impersonating a man? A man who, strictly speaking, never existed in the first place, but it's all about intention, right?)

Before she actually bites her fingers, however, she prefers to shove them down her booty shorts and begins stroking herself – hoping that Harleen will punish her for not waiting.


	3. #11 "Role Reversal"

Meeting Marian like this is a bit like having an out-of-body experience.

It never gets any easier seeing her dressed up as a perversion of her old self. If she slaps her now, would that be construed as auto-aggression or being in character? Would Joker have reacted that way, or does she have unresolved issues about Marian taking her place? About having left her Harley Quinn persona behind? About having _been_ Harley Quinn?

She tries not to let it get to her, but it's like looking into a distorted mirror. Everything about Marian's getup, from her fuck-me-shorts to her juvenile make-up, screams of a severe lack of self-esteem: _Do anything you wish with me, just don't leave me._

Strange to think she'd revert back into it so readily after she'd invented Neo-Joker as an outlet and a source of strength. Harleen surmises that it gets her in the mood and allows her to be vulnerable, because it reminds her of feeling powerless.

For Marian, Harley Quinn has never been more than a gimmick, a gateway to the Joker perhaps, a part to play so she could belong. It had never been _her._

For Harleen, the opposite is true. She'd _been_ Harley Quinn, and Harley Quinn had been her, a crystallization of herself, heightening the parts she liked about herself and those she didn't. It had never meant weakness, only freedom.

Seeing Marian prance around in a mockery of that angers her, but she has decided to have fun with that.


	4. #23 "Bodyswap"

Harleen is not herself when she meets Marian. That should go without saying, as being someone else rather than herself is the basis these meetings are predicated on, yet it bears mentioning.

It's not a matter of her mental state, although that may surely be called into question. It's more an absence of it. Like she's there, but not. Experiencing, but not. Watching, but not. 

A visitor in her own body, a wanderer in her own mind, like she's revisiting memories of a past she's never had, but in reverse, from a different viewpoint.

Where Joker started out by sweet-talking her and getting progressively meaner, she starts out rough and softens with time.

"Harley, my sweet," she tuts as she forces a toxic green dildo into Marian's yielding body, "you're always begging for my attention, but now that I'm going out of my way to give it to you, it's not right either."

"It is, I want it, puddin'," Marian whines in that grating voice of hers, "I can be so good, I swear."

Harleen twists Marian's pigtails harder, tugging until Marian's head nearly rests on her shoulder. For all her reluctance and feigned protests, she looks pretty ecstatic about being used like a toy.

It's like fucking herself with Joker's body. Sometimes, in the heat of it, she has difficulty telling them apart. In the heat of it, she forgets to be angry about her stolen identity.

In the heat of it, she finds that everything's skewed.

Everything's perfect.


	5. #25 "Hurt/comfort"

By the time Harleen's through with her, Marian can't seem to tell her apart from Joker either. She's kissing her as though her life depended on it, clinging to her shoulders, ruining her suit.

Perhaps the only thing that's salvageable from tonight is the jacket, because she's taken it off before they got serious. Certainly nothing else is: the vest she left on because it flattens her curves and helps the illusion, and the green shirt she wears beneath are rumpled and sweat-soaked; her pants are stained with blood and slick and makeup; her sense of self is in pieces.

Marian's head falls back once she's ridden out her high, her thighs still clenching around Harleen's hips. Harleen nuzzles her throat, buries it in the crook of her shoulder, then bites. Marian keens and tenses again.

It comforts her to hurt Marian.

She feels like she understands Joker so much better now.

At first, she's been surprised how quickly her resentment to Marian melts as soon as they fall into character. Perhaps it's her own Joker issues coming to the fore, trying to convince her that he hurt her because he loved her, that he hurt her because he hated that he loved her. That he punished her for how she made him feel. It was her fault after all.

Marian wants to believe that Joker loved Harley. That he loved her.

And so, to be in character, Harleen has to love her, too. And to hurt her for it.


	6. #20 "Proposal"

Pocket square, pocket watch, pocket knife. With each item she puts on, Harleen is slowly piecing herself back together. Or piecing her Joker persona back together. 

She wipes her knives on the rags she has reduced Marian's top to and tucks them away in their hiding places.

Marian takes longer to gather herself. Her arms are trembling when she tries to heave herself up. Her knees buckle to the floor and she crawls through the mess of discarded clothing toward Harleen.

"Don't go yet, puddin'," she begs. Once she reaches Harleen, she grabs hold of her pant legs and pulls herself up until she can rub her face against Harleen's thigh.

Harleen _tsk_ s and lifts Marian's chin with a crooked finger. Her cheeks are puffy and red and streaked with dark runnels. Harleen has a mean right hand and Marian's asking for her to exercise it again.

"You're still hard," Marian insists, palming Harleen's strapon through her pants. "I told you I'll be good, let me take care of you."

Marian makes short work of her, giving head like she was born to do it and not stopping there. Harleen hisses when Marian tongue comes close to her labia; Marian just keeps going, unbuckling the straps to eat Harleen out for real.

Surprise gives way to pleasure, and when Marian pulls back to ask her things just as Harleen is about to come, she hardly knows what she's agreeing to.

Anything she wants, as long as she keeps going.


	7. #5 "Fake dating"

It was such an innocent request.

"Will you take me out?" Marian had asked. "I wanna go on a date with you."

All she wants is to have some fun with her puddin' outside of the bedroom. Harleen doesn't want to, but she can relate. A night on the town, with or without the capers, is the best way to spend an evening.

As if Marian hasn't been demanding enough of her time. Yet she doesn't say no.

Instead, she takes her to an amusement park outside of Gotham, with reduced admissions for costumed folks. Nobody knows them here, and even their clothes draw no particular attention among the other Jokers and Harleys. 

Which isn't to say they don't draw attention at all. Marian clings to her arm as though afraid she might lift off like a helium balloon, and drags her to every stand she finds exciting. Young girls gawk at them, mothers glare, and dudes who have yet to learn about self-preservation leer at Marian's tush – that is, until Harleen brandishes her switchblade in their direction and leers right back.

Harleen has chosen this place to keep a low profile – the last thing she needed was for someone to recognize her – but in the end she can't help but make off with a little something anyway. Perhaps all the rollercoaster rides finally got to her head.

With a giant plushie and an incredulous Marian in tow, Harleen runs until she can't anymore, falling onto the grass and laughing.


	8. #2 "Sharing a bed"

"Today was _sooo_ much fun, puddin'!"

A residue of breathlessness clings to Marian's voice as she throws her arms around Harleen's neck to smooch her senseless. No small wonder, after all the running and laughing they did.

The kiss is awkward, the distance between them padded with the giant pink cat plushie Harleen is still carrying. It's the trophy Harleen had stolen from the guy who'd rather check out Marian than the girl he was with. Perhaps it's a heteronormative fallacy to assume the chick was his girlfriend. Perhaps she was his best friend and he allowed to look. Perhaps Harleen had been feeling a little too possessive of Marian's tush.

"Stay with me tonight," Marian breathes against Harleen's lips, still on her tiptoes and hinging at the hip to accommodate the plushie. " _Puddin'._ "

The emphasis on the endearment is strange, just as the dual nature of their relationship. Harleen lets herself be tugged inside, lets the door fall shut behind them, lets herself be kissed again.

The plushie tumbles to the floor when she grabs Marian's ass, picks her up, carries her to the bedroom. Marian giggles. Clothes fly in their wake.

They make love for the first time that night.

It's different from the rough fucking they'd done before. From the hair-pulling, the slapping, the humiliation. Harleen can't refrain from it, not entirely, especially the biting: the persona she plays for Marian is too much a part of herself to suppress it.

It's not like Marian's complaining though.


	9. #21 "Domestic"

Their meetings become less sexual in nature after their first semi-official date. Sometimes, all Marian wants to do is cuddle and watch a movie. Sometimes, she wants Harleen to come grocery shopping with her. Other times, she wants them to prepare a meal together and share it.

Essentially, what she wants to do is play house.

The psychiatrist in Harleen sees it as a form of therapy.

Marian craves intimacy, but chooses the most distant figures to fixate on. (Possible lack of a strong male role model early in life.) Once she has locked on to someone, she will do everything in her power to get their attention and make herself indispensable to them, even going so far as to mold her own personality to the other's likes. All so they would stay.

But Joker didn't stay, and now Marian's found herself a cheap knockoff to ease her separation anxiety and abandonment issues. To stay within her fantasy of a happily ever after with him.

Harleen understands, personally and professionally, how hard it is to let go. Joker's charm is magnetic, it draws you in and blinds you to the horrifying deeds it hides.

She feels as though they've had a breakthrough, though. Now that her sexual frustration has been taken care of, Marian is free to move on to other areas where her needs have not been met yet.

Harleen accepts the freshly baked cookies and the fussing, and keeps analyzing Marian as she putters around in the kitchen.


	10. #1 "Mutual pining"

Outside of the time they're together, Harleen doesn't waste much thought on Marian. She views their sessions as a transaction, scheduled, regular, on time every week. A little sacrifice for her life with Jack. Her headaches would be so much bigger if she left Marian go unchecked and able to plan for new ways of getting her Joker back.

This way, at least, Marian's appeased for some time, and Harleen can go back to wasting time thinking about mayoral campaigns, press conferences, and fancy dinners.

Her plate is surprisingly full with playing the supportive girlfriend on camera and the reassuring one off of it. There's so much guilt between them, she barely sees how they can work around that.

It's not as much fun as it used to be, but it hasn't been that for a long while. Perhaps it's time for both of them to grow up and face the realities of their actions.

If only he were paying more attention to her. He hardly notices when she's there, engrossed as he is with making amends, and notices even less when she's not. An hour bleeds into two, happens twice a week, takes over until morning. Harleen almost thinks she does it on purpose, to force a reaction from him.

But really, it's more about self-care. Marian might not want her specifically, but she makes her feel wanted.

And Harleen wants what they have, because it's fun, it's empowering, it's recharging her batteries.

She can't wait to go back.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Idée Fixe" by Catherine Barnett.
> 
> If you liked any of the ficlets, please donate comments and kudos. That'd be cool of you ♥ Kind feedback keeps creators going.


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